"I love my Great Aunt Corri; she got me into all of this. I want to come here forever" . Howard, FarmAbility co-farmer, March 2014
Corri came to the UK in 1998 from the States to study for a Master's degree and PhD at the University of Stirling. Corri moved to the Department of Zoology in Oxford in 2006, to continue post-doctoral research, lecturing and publishing on the behaviour and welfare of animals, particularly poultry. This work brought her to the FAI Farm in Wytham.
In 2010, Corri set up an educational programme on the FAI Farm, which gave children from primary schools in Oxfordshire the chance to learn about the food cycle, animal welfare and how farming works.
In 2011, Corri was asked to take part in a national project, Let Nature Feed Your Senses, which organised visits to a variety of green spaces by people who experience more challenges than most to accessing stimulating outdoor environments. Corri created and hosted some wonderful visits to the farm by older people with dementia, and by adults with autism and learning disabilities.
These visits to the farm, and the positive impact they had on the people who took part, were the inspiration behind FarmAbility, a project that Corri set up with Diane Horsman in 2012 on the FAI Farm. FarmAbility is a unique day service that provides meaningful, farm-based activities for adults with autism and learning disabilities in a supportive environment on a working, organic livestock farm. In just under two years, FarmAbility has grown from welcoming one co-farmer to the farm, to running a service for 21 co-farmers who come to the farm each week, 48 weeks in the year. FarmAbility has been nominated for two Oxfordshire Awards, was featured on BBC's CountryFile, and appeared on BBC Radio Oxford twice in 2013. An article was written about the project in the Oxford Times Limited Edition magazine. Follow this link to a short video about FarmAbility's work.
In August last year, a charity was created on the farm, The Farm Inspiration Trust (FIT), to provide FarmAbility with a sustainable basis on which it can continue to grow. FarmAbility is now a programme of FIT.
In 2013, Corri founded the Oxford REAL Egg project within FarmAbility, which provides work experience in an organic egg delivery service for adults with autism and learning disabilities. The project received a Good Egg Award from Compassion in World Farming.
Corri had also begun work on her first book, The Wisdom of Chickens, which was due to be published by Quercus in 2015. The book was set to overturn commonly held assumptions about chickens, by exploring their amazing evolutionary journey and complex inner world. Corri received the Royal Society of Literature's Jerwood Award for her book in December 2013.
In 2010, Corri set up an educational programme on the FAI Farm, which gave children from primary schools in Oxfordshire the chance to learn about the food cycle, animal welfare and how farming works.
In 2011, Corri was asked to take part in a national project, Let Nature Feed Your Senses, which organised visits to a variety of green spaces by people who experience more challenges than most to accessing stimulating outdoor environments. Corri created and hosted some wonderful visits to the farm by older people with dementia, and by adults with autism and learning disabilities.
These visits to the farm, and the positive impact they had on the people who took part, were the inspiration behind FarmAbility, a project that Corri set up with Diane Horsman in 2012 on the FAI Farm. FarmAbility is a unique day service that provides meaningful, farm-based activities for adults with autism and learning disabilities in a supportive environment on a working, organic livestock farm. In just under two years, FarmAbility has grown from welcoming one co-farmer to the farm, to running a service for 21 co-farmers who come to the farm each week, 48 weeks in the year. FarmAbility has been nominated for two Oxfordshire Awards, was featured on BBC's CountryFile, and appeared on BBC Radio Oxford twice in 2013. An article was written about the project in the Oxford Times Limited Edition magazine. Follow this link to a short video about FarmAbility's work.
In August last year, a charity was created on the farm, The Farm Inspiration Trust (FIT), to provide FarmAbility with a sustainable basis on which it can continue to grow. FarmAbility is now a programme of FIT.
In 2013, Corri founded the Oxford REAL Egg project within FarmAbility, which provides work experience in an organic egg delivery service for adults with autism and learning disabilities. The project received a Good Egg Award from Compassion in World Farming.
Corri had also begun work on her first book, The Wisdom of Chickens, which was due to be published by Quercus in 2015. The book was set to overturn commonly held assumptions about chickens, by exploring their amazing evolutionary journey and complex inner world. Corri received the Royal Society of Literature's Jerwood Award for her book in December 2013.